When iVillagers Stacia Ragolia and Jason Jesner decided to have an interfaith wedding ceremony, their first step was deciding which parts of each of their faiths they wanted to bring together. By keeping open minds, they were able to create the day of their dreams, and their ceremony program is proof:

Greetings: Father McDermott and Rabbi Roy Rosenberg

Opening Prayer: Father McDermott
Father, hear our prayers for Stacia and Jason, who today are united in marriage before your altar. Give them your blessing and strengthen their love for each other.

Lighting of the Unity Candle by both mothers

Rabbi Rosenberg: We now ask that Stacia and Jason's mothers Monica Ragolia and Laurie Jesner approach the altar and each light one of the tapers of the Unity candle. These candles are a symbol of the light they have each brought to their children's lives, which will soon be joined as one in marriage.

First Reading: Ruth 1:16-17
Read by a family friend
And Ruth said: Do not entreat me to leave you, or return from following after you: for whither you go, there I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God; where you die, I will die, and there I shall be buried; the Lord so to me, and more also, if aught but death part you and me.

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:8
Read by a family friend
Be ambitious for the higher gifts. And I am going to show you a way that is better than any of them. If I have the eloquence of men or angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fullness, to move mountains but without love, then I am nothing at all. If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but without love, it will do me no good whatever. Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offense, it is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end.

This is the word of God.

All: Thanks be to God.

Third Reading: Mark 10: 6-9
Read by Father Jack McDermott
From the beginning of creation God made them male and female. This is why a man leaves father and mother, and the two become one body. They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide. This is the gospel of the Lord.



Homily: Father Jack McDermott

The Rite of Marriage
Father McDermott: Stacia and Jason, you have come together in the presence of God's ministers and this community so that God may seal and strengthen your love. He abundantly blesses this love. He enriches and strengthens you so that you may assume the duties of marriage in mutual and lasting fidelity. And so, in the presence of this assembly, I ask you to state your intentions.

Stacia and Jason, have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?

Stacia and Jason: We have.

Father McDermott: Will you love each other as husband and wife for the rest of your lives?

Stacia and Jason: We will.

Father McDermott: Will you accept children lovingly from God and bring them up according to His laws?

Stacia and Jason: We will.

Consent and Exchange of Vows:
Father McDermott: Since it is your intention to enter into marriage, join your right hands, and declare your consent before God and this community. Do you Jason Michael, take Stacia Elizabeth to be your wife? Do you promise to be true to her in good times and bad, in sickness and health, to love her and honor her all the days of your life?

Jason: I do.

Father McDermott: Do you, Stacia Elizabeth, take Jason Michael to be your husband? Do you promise to be true to him in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love him and honor him all the days of your life?

Stacia: I do.

Father McDermott: You have declared your consent before God. May God in His goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with His blessings. What God has joined, man must not divide.

Blessing of the Rings:
Father McDermott: Lord, bless in your name. May these rings always be a symbol of Stacia and Jason's faith in each other and a reminder of their love. We ask this through God, our father.

All: Amen.

Exchange of Rings:
Rabbi Rosenberg: And now Jason, as you place the ring, the token of marriage, on Stacia's finger, I ask you to repeat these words:

And Stacia, please place this ring on Jason's finger as a token of your marriage and repeat these same words:

I give you this ring as a symbol of my unending love, and with it, you are my husband.



As by these rings you symbolize your marriage bond, may their meaning sink into your hearts and bind your lives together by devotion to one another. Truly then will these rings celebrate their words of Scripture, where it is written, "Wear me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is infinitely strong ..." In ever deepening love for one another, may you establish a home filled with the spirit of truth, of righteousness, and of peace, a house filled with true Shalom.

Wine Ceremony and Seven Blessings:
Rabbi Rosenberg: May the values which each of your cherish, and the prophetic ideals of justice and righteous, be strengthened by your love, so that by your lives together, all humanity will be nearer that day of freedom and peace which has ever been the aim and goal of all good people. We pray that this covenant will be blessed, and that this bond of marriage will be sealed with love, as we say: Praised be Thou, Lord our God, creator of the fruit of the vine.
Praised be Thou, Lord our God, who hast created all things to thy glory.
Praised be Thou, Lord our God, creator of man and woman.
Praised be Thou, Lord our God, who has created man and woman in thy likeness, and out of themselves hast Thou prepared a structure forever.
Praised be Thou, Lord our God, creator of man and woman.
Mayest Thou gladden the beloved who stand before thee this day as Thou did Thy creatures in Paradise in the days of yore. Praised be Thou, Lord our God, who gladdenest the bridegroom and the bride. Praised be Thou, Lord our God, who hast created joy and gladness, bridegroom and the bride, rejoicing, song, pleasure and delight, love and brotherhood, peace and fellowship. Always may there be heard the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the bride, the jubilant voice of bridegrooms from their nuptial celebrations and of youths from their feasts of song. Praised be Thou, Lord, who gladdenest the bridegroom together with the bride.

As together you have now drunk from this cup, so may you share contentment, peace, and fulfillment from the cup of life, and thereby may you find life's joys doubly gladdening, its bitterness sweetened, and each of its moments hallowed by true companionship and love.

Lighting of the Unity Candle by Stacia and Jason
One Hand, One Heart
Father McDermott: We now ask Stacia and Jason to take the tapers their mothers have lit, and join their flames together to light the single candle. As the two candles are now one light, so their two lives will also be one.

Rabbi Rosenberg: Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be a shelter for the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of your will be warmth to the other. Now there is no loneliness for you; now there is no more loneliness. Now you are two bodies, but there is only one life before you. Go now to your dwelling place, to enter the days of your togetherness. And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

Rabbi Rosenberg and Father McDermott: (Hebrew/English) May God bless you and keep you. May God lift up his countenance to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May God lift up his countenance upon you and grant you peace.

(Jason breaks the glass.)
(Stacia and Jason kiss.)
Recessional.